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[GWL]: Looking For A Writing Vehicle

Claude has obviously given the problem of finding writing opportunities deep
and careful thought.  Before we go any further in trying to design a web
site that might offer GWAA members writing opportunities, I think we should
spend some serious time and professional critique reviewing the three or
four large and expensive gardening sites that have failed.  Virtual Garden
was the pioneer and had a pile of data about gardening.  Garden.com lasted
five years and had enormous piles of articles available. MySeasons.com
believed that they had good content to go with their store.  Etera just
folded having spent many millions of dollars on "content" they felt would be
useful and valuable to gardeners.  While they are still up, PlanetGarden.com
has been sitting in the background with the entire publication list of Cool
Springs Press up on the site; is that good content?  The contributing
writers still have made no money from the effort.  The NationalGardening.com
site is felt by its owners to have marvelous content; all we will ever need.
Collectively, over $50 million was spent to develop a financially profitable
gardening information web site and it is all down the drain.  Does one need
even $1 million to build a "good" site?
All the four sites that have failed had plenty of time to fix any problems
in their design or in their content, yet they all failed.  I know that they
tried to make money selling hard goods and plants, but then does that mean
the content is irrelevant?
What was wrong with each model in terms of gardening information.  What
mistakes did they make in their content side that we could correct so we
might expect more success.
Do Americans really want to read magazine type articles on the web?  Is
there any real evidence of any site on any subject where magazine type
articles are a draw and a value?
What about the graphics?  We are talking about getting writing work for GWAA
members.  What about the photogs and the graphic designers?  Is there work
here for them?  If so, what should be different in photos and graphics from
the four big sites that have failed?
If you take all the content that has been up on line for over 5 years from
Virtual Garden, Garden.com, MySeasons, and Etera and put it in a single
pile, it probably represents a pretty complete database on gardening in
America.  If the data has already been published, where are the
opportunities for GWAA to get additional writing opportunities....are we
back to the magazine type articles?

I make a major distinction between the basic "how-to" data about gardening
and the discussion of gardening.  With the advent of the Internet I maintain
we no longer need to publish in magazines and even in books, how deep to
plant the tulip bulb.  That data is readily available on the Net in 100
different places and it is free.  It is in the discussion about gardening,
where I think the frontier still lies ahead.  Magazines can talk about
design, and show pictures and graphics of examples - in my view, that is the
biggest value of a magazine or a book for that matter.  There never will be
an end to that discussion.  Can the discussion of gardening be carried out
on the Web in any profit-making capacity?  I don't think so at this time.
Chat groups have been going strong since the early 80's and will continue to
be popular; they are free.  Putting the discussion of gardening into an
article and publishing it on the web with some hope of gaining a financial
benefit is something that I have not yet seen happen, and do not expect to
see happening in the near future; at least in the gardening field.

I don't want to make everyone feel I am pouring cold water on this
discussion of seeking ways to help GWAA members find work to do.  However, I
too have lost a great deal of money trying to find ways to make money in
videos, in CDROM's, and now on the web.  It is a tricky business and one
frought with many pitfalls and barriers.  I can't even imagine how one can
spend $10 million setting up a content-based web site; but dozens have tried
it and have failed.  I am very respectful of the challenge, especially in
the garden writing business.

I think we need to take some serious time looking at what has failed and try
to understand why there has been such failure before we move ahead with any
plans of our own.
Jeff Ball

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